(I´m not considered tall woman in Iceland) and my horses are from 133cm at withers to 145 cm. .... in a rainy weather,and all horses was fine when we come home and how many of us is under 85 kg package on horses bigger than 138cm!?
I saw that Malnin mentioned the height of the horses a couple of times, when she talked about weight carrying. Height is not a criteria for weight carrying. I've seen some 15+ H horses that don't look nearly as substantial as many of my 13-13.3H Icelandic's. But, I don't think it's fair to think that all horses of typical Icelandic heights (12.2 -14.0 H) are equally capable of carrying weight, just because they happen to be Icelandic's. Tivar is no taller than Bjola, for instance, but Tivar has bigger cannon bones, a wider pelvis and wider sprung ribs. (both have nicely conformed legs, but Tivar definitely has more "bone.") I would not be anxious for Cary to try to ride Bjola, not for very long anyway. It MIGHT be that she would be as athletic as her bigger brother, Skjoni, and MAYBE she could be conditioned to carry Cary's weight as well as Skjoni does. But, I sure wouldn't bank on it. Statistically, a smaller framed horse will not be as strong as a bigger one. Sure, there may be a few exceptions, but it's not the rule. Even for my use, and I'm not a big person, I think a smaller-framed horses would need to have VERY good back and leg conformation. The larger the rider, the more important that conformation becomes. Karen Thomas, NC
